For those who appreciate quality fantasy entertainment, Game of Thrones on HBO is an absolute must watch. It has it all: epic battles, charismatic characters, and dragons. It also has a ton of knives and swords. A recent episode in fact focused very heavily on this aspect. In the show, a powerful dagger was made out of valerian steel, which is a fictional kind of metal that was invented solely for the story of Game of Thrones.

Have you ever wondered about the kinds of metals used to make real knives and daggers? If so, you’ve come to the right place as we have compiled a list of the some of the most popular types of metals used in making these spectacular tools and weapons.

Steel

When it comes to the most popular option for making a knife or a dagger, it is highly likely that it will be some kind of steel. In fact, the vast majority of blades are made from one of a variety of different steel types. Although some blades are created using something else such as titanium alloy or or obsidian, this is not very common so we will not cover those options in this list.

Quality

Although it is a common misconception to believe that the quality of a blade is derived directly from the material which it is made up of, this is not always the case. The fact of the matter is that the technique which is used to craft the blade is far more important when it comes to judging overall quality.

For example, a talented blade smith can make even a rough material into something truly great, but a mediocre blade smith would be hard pressed to create a blade worth owning even out of a very high quality material.. Therefore, it should be taken with a grain of salt when discussing the merits of different types of blade materials.

Stainless Steel 

Stainless steel is likely a metal that you are already more than familiar with. it also happens to be one of the most popular metals for making knives. The reasons are pretty much what you would expect. Thanks to the make up of the material, stainless steel blades do not easily rust and they maintain their metallic sheen for a very long time. Basically, the look very nice and will continue to do so with minimal effort on you part.

There are a few downsides to stainless steel blades however. This metal is slightly softer than some of the competitors, which means that they tend to lose their ship edges a little too quickly for some tastes.

Carbon Steel

Carbon blades are basically the opposite of stainless steel blades, in terms of their pros and cons. They are harder which means that they are generally a bit easier to make sharp, but that also makes them a bit more brittle. So it is best to use carbon blades for less taxing working then you would stainless steel blades.

With that being said, there rally isn’t any matching the sharpness that can be found when making a blade out of carbon steel. If you want to chop something quickly and effortlessly, invest quality carbon blade.

Alloy Steel

Alloy is a little bit different from the two previous kinds of steels. As the name suggest, it is derived from aluminum, which means it is both durable and very lightweight. If desired, it is also very easy to blend with other kinds of metals. The only noticeable drawbacks to this metal is that it is not nearly as tough as the other two, so if you need a heavy duty knife than this is not it.